Partnership Seeks Multiple Myeloma Biomarkers and Drugs

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NextBio is teaming up with scientists at Emory University and the Winship Cancer Institute to identify biomarkers and drugs targeting multiple myeloma, using the firm’s NextBio Clinical platform to interpret molecular data from patients. The Winship Cancer Institute is a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated center, with specialist expertise in the multiple myeloma field.

“For this study, we will be collecting RNA-seq, SNP, and copy number variation data from our own patient samples,” explains Sagar Lonial, M.D., director of translational research for the B-cell malignancy program at Winship, who will act as principal investigator on the NextBio collaboration. “In addition, we plan to access the multiple myeloma cell line data available in the NextBio platform as well as myeloma data from public repositories that NextBio has curated. Integrating use of molecular data alongside clinical data in our cancer translational research projects is a top priority, and this partnership will help us solidify that workflow.”

NextBio offers a software platform to aggregate and interpret large quantities of genomic data for research and clinical applications. Delivered as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering, the NextBio platform contains what the firm says is the world's largest repository of curated and correlated public and private genomic data, including data from multiple public repositories of genomic studies and patient molecular profiles, up-to-date reference genomes, and clinical trial results. The enterprise platform provides users with access to the curated public patient clinical and molecular data, experimental models, and real-time interpretation and analysis tools.

The NextBio Clinical platform allows users to apply data analysis and interpretation to biomarker discovery, translational research, and clinical trials. This clinical platform is formatted around a patient-centric framework that allows the correlation of patients’ molecular and clinical data from public and proprietary studies in an integrated context. The NextBio Research platform provides tools and content geared towards exploratory, preclinical, and early translational research in drug discovery and biotechnology research.

In July NextBio announced a partnership with Intel that aims to further push the boundaries of applying Big Data technologies to genomics.